When the MSM attacks

It's hardly ever a pretty sight; for the MSM that is.

In this case it's the Columbia Journalism Review.

So what do you do when a ideological colleague starts to get trashed for using shoddy journalism standards to try and portray a negative portrayal of soldiers as a 'unbiased' look sat a soldiers life in Iraq, well you target an attack piece against their critics trying to downplay the original bad journalism with an article that shouldn't have even made the grade at a high school paper of course.

First The New Republic runs a series of pieces from serviceman Scott Thomas Beauchamp without disclosing:

1. he is married to a TNR staffer.
2. he is a committed liberal (even going so far as to volunteer for Howard Deans Presidential campaign) who by his own admission joined the military to give his creative writing some bonifides.
3. many of his claims are not just dubious but defy the laws of physics and are a those that are easily fact checked such as "only Iraqi police have glocks" are often flat out wrong.

So in defense of this masterpiece CJR attacks milbloggers as being keyboard activists not willing to put themselves on the line. Apparently at the higher levels of journalism the idea of even understanding those you are attacking is considered beneath you as is actually Googling the term 'milblogger'.

OK, so the first result just says "Military Blogs" in the title, maybe thats just the topic they discuss, fair enough, but by the 4th and 5th results the stories are actually about blogging from the front lines and milbloggers getting injured in Iraq, even a not so bright first year journalist student may pick up on the concept that milblogger = military blogger meaning a blogger who is either currently or formerly an active duty military member.

Ah, fact checking in the new age of journalism. If it wasn't so funny it would be sad.

Check out the WorldWide Standard , LGF, Hotair and pretty much any other large blog left or right for more.

Media Neutrality - NBC edition

And this is NBC's goto guy for politics.

So to recap, we have staunch liberals Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as their primary political analysts and William Arkin, a rabid anti-armed services far left liberal covering the military but according to the left we are all to believe that they never let their preconceived notions and biases affect their reporting of the 'truth'.

"Isn't it Ironic"

and unlike Ms. Morrisette's 1996 song, this does fit the definition:

At last nights "Troop Appreciation Night" at the Senators hockey game, an enthusiastic supporter was waving around an extremely over sized cardboard or plastic "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbon which in her excitement she did not notice was hitting one of the uniformed servicemen sitting two seats away from her in the head on every swing to her left (the symbolism of that I'll leave for you to dwell on).

And to make matters worse, as the crowd began to laugh and cheer she began to wave it more franticly forcing the soldier to have to cover his head with his hands but all the while smiling and being a good sport about it.

"Why I Joined"

Powerful words from a fallen hero.

Thanks to Michelle for the link.

In the Navy

The latest US Navy recruitment ad NOT coming to a TV near you by way of HotAir.

In Case of Facts, Deny Deny Deny.

That seems to be the liberal view of todays armed forces. Just watch the video from Hot Air from Charles Rangel appearence with Chris Wallace.

They just can't let go of the old adage that those in the military are just poor helpless idiots who need their help to show them the way. The Democrats, specifically, rely heavily on the concept that the armed forces are targeting underprivileged youth to help drum up anti-war sympathies but as Sen. Charles Rangel just made it clear to the world, they have nothing to back up their claims and when faced with solid facts to the contrary they simply ignore them and continue to push the oft debunked claim that people only join the military because they have no other option.

The very concept that some people, and in fact the great majority of enlisted, make a conscious choice to join the armed forces to defend their nation and it's ideals anywhere across the globe and not for a simple paycheck is simply foreign to them and therefore they have to try to explain their courage away by turning them into victims of circumstance.

And no matter how hard the left tries to spin this, Rangel was not making a botched joke.

State Funeral Passes House

Due to the efforts of people like The Dominion Institute and the 90,000 people who signed their online petition (of which I am proud to be one) a motion to recognize all the fallen soldiers of the First World War through a state funeral upon the death of the last man to have served at that time has been introduced and has passed in the House of Commons.

With only 3 members still with us and the youngest of the bunch being 105 years old, the day is coming when there won't be anyone around with first hand knowledge of the military at that time. At least now they can rest easy knowing that their sacrifices and those of the 600,000 other armed service members that served during WWI won't be forgotten.